After recent gains, U.S. stocks have stalled a bit lately, with investors reluctant to push the advance further.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch equity strategists recently suggested a cautious stance on U.S. shares for the next three to six weeks, even as they upgraded their “core view” on U.S. stocks from neutral to bullish over the next three to six months.

Investor sentiment is at a very positive level, the strategists said, though they are wary about the short-term prospects.

Morgan Stanley has lifted the curtain on their cross-asset strategy team’s top trades for 2013, predicting that a “positive macro tilt” will mean the risk/reward equation will favor stocks over bonds and other fixed-income products.

To position for such a move, the strategists have reduced their overweight position in credit, are holding onto an underweight stance in government bonds, and are slightly overweight equities.

“If we become more comfortable with the prospect of solid macro conditions in 2014, we will likely lift our strategic weight to equities though the first half of 2013,” they said.

With it looking increasingly likely that the stock market this week will be testing its August lows, it’s important to review the specific definition of a triple bottom, since — if the August lows hold — it’s all too likely that many investors will prematurely declare that such a chart pattern has been formed. If [...]

A host of tech firms and retailers should capture most of the attention when the market opens on Thursday. Shares of NetApp Inc. NTAP took a pounding in after-hours trading Wednesday as the data-storage provider reported first-quarter earnings after the close that fell short of analyst sales projections. Adjusted earnings of 55 cents a share were [...]

Stocks fell Wednesday morning in New York with shares of Boeing Co. and Cisco Systems Inc. in focus. The DJ Industrial Average DJIA fell 0.6% to 12424.02. Twenty-seven stocks in the index fell while 3 rose. Among laggards, Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO fell 2.1% to $15.94. Shares of United Technologies Corp. UTX fell 2% to [...]

Zillow Inc. made money. No, not a profit. The company’s initial public offering which priced this week produced the third-highest 1-day return this year for U.S. IPO, according to Dealogic. The stock was up 79%, behind Qihoo 360 Technology Co. QIHU which had a 1-day close of 134.5% and LinkedIn Corp’s LNKD 1 day close [...]

A complex technical pattern known as “three peaks and a domed house” suggests that the two-year old bull market has either just peaked, or will do so in another month. Michael Kahn writes: This rather complex pattern was discovered by master chart watcher George Lindsay in the late 1960s. Without getting too deep into the [...]

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